Back on the 12/02/03 I said: Recurrent Coronal Hole #071 will become geoeffective beginning on 12/5/03. As #066 on 11/9-14/03 it produced a Kp of 6 (moderate geomagnetic storm) and I expect at least a Kp of 5 (minor geomagnetic storming) this time around.
Well the high speed solar wind stream from recurrent Coronal Hole #071 arrived today and related minor Kp-5 to moderate Kp-6 geomagnetic storming began around 0300 UTC. As #071 is very large it will remain geoeffective (Earth facing) for four or five more days. This means pretty consistent geomagnetic storming for the same period of time with occasional lesser active Kp-4 periods. With geomagnetic storming you see a lowering of the F2 layer maximum usable frequency (MUF), with the high bands impacted first. Before the storm began, even with the Solar Flux at under 100 I was hearing some signals yesterday on the 10 meter amateur band. Today nothing on 10 meters and weak signals on 15/13 meters, proof that the theory is correct. However not all is lost on shortwave. With the low solar flux at under 100, the low background x-ray flux at B1.2, the ongoing geomagnetic storming not presently impacting lower shortwave frequencies and also no current elevated energetic proton event >10 MeV (10+o) in progress, D layer ionization is weaker then it has been lately. Therefore I'm able to receive R. Rebelde on 5025 kc in Cuba, AFRTS on 5446.5 kc in Key West, WTJC/WBOH on 5920 kc in North Carolina, the Dominican Republic on 6025 kc and CFRX 6070 kc in Canada, all with good signal levels at local noon here in Central Florida. Also yesterday evening I was able to recover a readable signal from R. Mauritania on 4845 kc at 2035 UTC, two plus hours before my local sunset of 2232 UTC and the 160 meter amateur band opened up at 2130 UTC, with the MF AM broadcast band opening up at 2140 UTC. I also noticed earlier this morning that propagation was still strong on the 80 meter amateur band as late as 1600 UTC. Unfortunately though we will see poor north to south propagation (we call it auroral) on the MF AM broadcast band, also on high latitude E-W propagations paths. On the LF band we will see enhanced daytime propagation conditions via the D layer and degraded propagation conditions at night. 73, Thomas F. Giella, KN4LF Plant City, FL, USA EL87WX Yaesu FT-840 & PSK31 Digital Mode E Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yaesu_ft840 160 Meter Amateur Radio Resources & More http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf.htm Daily Solar Space Weather & Geomagnetic Data Archive http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf5.htm HF/MF Radio Propagation Theory Notes http://www.kn4lf.com/kn4lf8.htm Florida Space & Atmospheric Weather Institute http://www.kn4lf.com/fsawi.htm Florida Daily Weather Discussion http://www.kn4lf.com/sub/fmci17.htm Friend Website Design Studio http://www.kn4lf.com --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free Thanks To Grisoft AVG. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.548 / Virus Database: 341 - Release Date: 12/5/2003 ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2004 is coming out! Preorder yours now! Only $20.97 through us. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059685/hardcoredxcom ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
